Maine Hockey Journal

Lewiston tops St. Dom’s in Class A North Final

(PHOTO: RAM Sport)

(PHOTO: RAM Sport)

LEWISTON – Yet another third-period scoring outburst pushed the Lewiston Blue Devils past the St. Dominic’s Academy Saints 5-1 to advance to the state championship game Saturday against the Scarborough Red Storm.

The game will be held at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee at 6 pm.

Heavily favored Lewiston heavily outshot the Saints by a score of 42-13, but goaltender Kyle Welsh kept his team in the game as long as he possibly could.

“They were getting shots, but they really seemed to be perimeter shots,” said Bob Parker, head coach of the Saints. “A couple went down low, and they were battling for it, but our kids really did a good job down low of boxing out and battling also. I’m very proud of my kids.”

Freshman forward Sam Frechette tipped a shot by Jon Sturgis past St. Dom’s goaltender Kyle Welsh to go ahead by two goals early in the third period. It was his second goal of the contest.

43 seconds later, Lewiston’s Alex Rivet caught a pass in stride from Joe Bisson and brought the puck to his backhand to roof it into the top left corner of the goal.

Then 4:34 into the final period, Dustin Larochelle scored the final goal for the Blue Devils when he stuffed a rebound home past Welsh. Rivet recorded the assist on the play.

“Third period I said we need to get back to what we’re good at, which is our skates and moving the puck around and obviously within a short period of time we put a couple up,” said Lewiston’s head coach Jamie Belleau.

The monster third period for the Blue Devils was preceded by two tight first periods.

Frechette got the Blue Devils on the board with 2:37 remaining in the first period. With defenseman Cole Ouellette parked in front of the goal, Lewiston’s Kyle Morin got a quick shot on net that forced a rebound that Frechette was able to dart into the top left corner of the goal.

“It was just a rebound,” said Frechette. “I was just lucky to get it on my stick, and that’s what we’ve been going for a long time now, to get to the net.”

It was a quirky first period where Lewiston initially outshot the Saints 7-0, the Saints retaliated with five straight shots, and Lewiston finished the period outshooting St. Dom’s 5-0.

Like he was in the first period, Saints goaltender Kyle Welsh was the story in the second. Welsh recorded 14 saves on 15 shots while his team put four on the Lewiston goaltender Jacob Strout.

Joe Bisson was the lone Lewiston player to beat Welsh in the period. With Welsh down and out after making two consecutive saves, the puck fell to the stick of Bisson, who roofed the puck with the goaltender on his stomach. The goal came with 5:04 remaining in the second.

The Saints brought the game back to within a goal as they gained a little momentum going into the final period.

Noah Toussaint took a shot to the left of Lewiston’s Jacob Strout, who fumbled a rebound to the opposite side. The puck ended up on the stick of Reese Farrell, who went over the blocker of Strout, who couldn’t make it to the opposite post in time. Toussaint’s goal came with 3:12 remaining in the second period.

Kyle Welsh, the goaltender for the Saints, kept his team in the game until the early stages of the third when shots were being dumped on goal. The junior faced 36 Lewiston shots recorded 31 saves. Many of Lewiston’s goals came on rebounds or redirections.

Opposite Welsh, Jacob Strout had 12 saves on 13 shots in a victory for Lewiston.

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